Why are they unrendered? You should add at least a directional light so its easier to see what you have done. just because your getting good framerates now dont mean much. That level is quite small, and definatly will not run well depending on how you implement culling. Just curious, what video card are you working with? If you can afford maya, it seems reasonable to assume you have a decent video card. Many ppl dont have decent video cards. Last I checked geforce3/4 level card the current mainstream card (ie directx level 8 cards). How large is the map file in memory? What framerate do you get ingame?

High polygon count worlds are not that impressive with low framerates. Doom3 has pretty lowpolygon counts for its scenes and uses bumpmapping for details. Halflfie2 also does bumpmapping with hi res textures. same with farcry.

too many developers think high polygon counts are the end all and be all of good graphics. They forget about gameplay and framerate. They also forget about the art direction in hopes of special effects to hide defects.

Until I see at least some render of the level I woudl have to say that you failed to convince me that its not just some crappy high polygonal model which wastes polygons for the purpose of marketing.

Once again I asked if the model was good not if it will run well in the game! and as I said before it is a small chunk of the level. And i have a geforce fx 5600 and get a framerate of 300 fps. On my other computer which has only a geforce 2 it has a framerate of 152fps. And as i keep saying it isn't finished and it is alot bigger now. All i wanted to know was if the models were good.

Hey,

It seems you know little about game development if you think "Big Game Developers" using high polygon models in their games.

"Big Game Developers don't have a magic codes that makes their games and models run faster on the same hardware that "normal" game developers run their games.

Also you seem to have a slightly wrong idea of how LOD works. Large number of polygons doesn't become lower quality it is stays high number of polygons. I don't want to go in to epxlaining how it works but as I said in my previous post, it's all about texturing in games and a well designed low polygon model ( that can originate from high polygon model ).

In maya you can use reduce polygon tool to that can reduce their number but it will do it in it's own way which will decrease the quality of the model rather radically. It also uses up a lot of CPU power to do so on the fly using the game.

If you have any of the recent games, like Half Life 2 for example you can get the model viewer up and see how those great looking models actually built. They are still within a certain number of polygons to make the game run smooth.

Anyway, your model looking great but it won't run inside a game like that. Unless we are talking about some beowolf cluster.

Hope you check up on this info instead of just ignoring our comments.

Quote:

Original post by siosphere Once again I asked if the model was good not if it will run well in the game! and as I said before it is a small chunk of the level. And i have a geforce fx 5600 and get a framerate of 300 fps. On my other computer which has only a geforce 2 it has a framerate of 152fps. And as i keep saying it isn't finished and it is alot bigger now. All i wanted to know was if the models were good.

If you're begging for praise, then you need to realise you already got it. People already mentioned that your models look great. And NOW people are mentioning how to make them BETTER. As you keep saying, IT ISNT FINISHED YET. If what you have now is going at 300FPS, then you can only expect the FPS to go DOWN as you add more detail. Also, keep in mind that you've still got scripts and an engine to build. Moving in 3d Space isnt much, but once you start adding game elements like Pickup-able items, bad guys, good guys, weapons, AI, etc, your precious frame rate is going to drop.

But seriously, if you're fishing for compliments, go to another pond. You're going to get more honest replies here.

And then, im more honest than most. Look how my rating has suffered from that honesty. In the real world, you're not going to get investors and fellow developers to look at your stuff and consistantly tell you how much your stuff r0X0rs.
So, those are some good models, but they DO NEED WORK. and we're telling you what you need to work on. Your childish replies of "Nuh uh"s arent going to make your work better.

That looks great. Are you going to texture and light it?

Just some advice.

Ease up on the polycount on the cylynders. You can get away with 4 or 5 sides for them on the railings. With the right texturing and lighting, you can even get away with boxes for the railings. Especially the way you layed out your map. You can see very far, and all those extra polygons in the railings will do nothing but kill performance, and eat up memory that could be put to better use somewhere else. :)

Ok, well if you want my honest opinion on the model itself, I can't say that I'm too impressed. It just looks like a bunch of boxes with rails and stairs to me. The upper areas are a bit more geometrically complex, and a step in the right direction...but what exactly is it? It lacks identity. I don't know what I'm looking at here..

I think this is way too early in development to judge it rightfully. Why not come back with some textured/rendered pics instead of screaming "It's not finished yet!" when someone says it looks plain.

Heres a tip. When you're building geometry, try to give everything a purpose, and make sure everything would structurally make sense in real life. If there's a pillar, there better be something it's holding up. If there's a bridge but it has no support, people might not notice on a concious level, but they will feel it subconciously. They will just feel that something isn't right, and diminish the overall experience. Do google searches for different types of architecture and try to recreate some of the things you like. And be consistant!

Check this pic out: http://www.infosprite.com/members/W01f/improve.GIF

Those three areas I pointed out really need some sort of support. They just don't make any sense. What's holding them up? especially that staircase...I wouldn't want to be the one walking over it, that's for sure.

Those dotted areas are just pointing out bare cubes that make no sense. What kind of a structure is a bunch of plain cubes? I've never seen anything like that in real life, and I don't think that's how they'll construct buildings in the future either. Give them a purpose. As far as I can tell, they were constructed for the sole purpose of holding a single staircase, which will lead to another cube holding another staircase ect.. that doesn't make any sense..who would design such a structure??

And like everyone else has said, those cylinders will kill your frame rate. Take it easy on the subdivide button :/

[Edited by - W01f on December 24, 2004 4:41:21 AM]

It would be much easier for us to express our opinions if you told us something about the building.
When you start designing a building you first have to think what its purpose is, just so you know what elemnts you have to integrate in your design (this will give a big plus to the realism). After that you need a few sketches if not plans for each level of the building, a top/side/front view of the exteriour. Creating a building from scratch is not a good idea - you could easily get too creative and break the overall style or affect its functionality.
By deciding a building's purpose and carefully planning its design, you won't get into this kind of trouble (the kind that W01f mentioned).
But again, if you want a thorugh critique, you'll have to explain your vision about this building and post some new images of the textured and lighted model.


P.S. Sometimes you can observe flaws in your design yourself... Just take a break, enjoy Christmas (carefull not to drink to much:)), and after that take another look at your model: you might spot something.

Hey Guys,

Go easy on the guy, he does have talent, those models are well put together, he just doesn't know how the games work. I'm sure after a bit of time he will pick up what he needs to know through these forums and turorials on the net.

We've all been there.

Dan

[Edited by - wizards on December 24, 2004 9:17:57 AM]

Thanx for all your guys's input I will redo the level and add support to those places. I will make it more low polygon. Thanx for all your help :D and Merry Christmas eve :D

good work, i liked it.
keep up good work, and yes you do not have to use lots of polygons, shaders will show it like high poly. but i think a good culling system can render yours..
cheers, merry Christmas !